FFAI Determinism and Free Will

FFAI Determinism and Free Will

1. summary

1.1. free will and determinism have a long and complicated history in philosophy

1.2. most of the literature on "free will" considers it an intrinsic property of a system

1.3. that leads to inconsistencies and contradictions

1.4. free will is often used as a "back door argument" to sneak in dualism, by appeal to intuition: "you have free will, therefore ... dualism must be true"

1.5. "free will" is easier to understand if you view it as theory that one agent has about the behavior of another agent

1.6. "From John's point of view, Jane has free will."

1.7. AI likely needs "free will", in the sense of interacting with humans in the way we expect humans to interact. I.e., an AI needs preferences, reasoning, the ability to choose, and the ability not to be arbitrarily overridden by other agents.

2. implications for morality, law

2.1. common recent argument: determinism means that there is no moral or legal responsibility for anything

2.2. we need to take into account for what purpose we determine "free will"

2.3. you go out and shoot someone for money

2.3.1. your goals and reasoning are incompatible with civilized society